Appeal court makes Mokbel a 'top priority'

Victoria Police has been told to make drug lord Tony Mokbel a priority as it searches through thousands of documents relating to tips they received from his barrister-turned-informer Nicola Gobbo.

The Court of Appeal is considering Mokbel's application for leave to challenge his drug trafficking conviction on the basis of her informer role, as well as applications by two other former clients, Rob Karam and Zlate Cvetanovski.

Court president Chris Maxwell said on Thursday police must focus their investigations on Mokbel, Karam and Cvetanovski, whose appeal cases bear directly on public confidence in the criminal justice system.

Delays by Victoria Police providing documents has been an ongoing issue both for the appeal court and for a royal commission into police use of informers, which is first focusing on Ms Gobbo, also known as 'Lawyer X' and 'Informer 3838'.

The former criminal barrister was registered as an informer three times, officially providing information to police on and off between 1995 and 2009, although she continued to do so unofficially until 2010.

Brendan Murphy QC, who is representing the force and Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton in a series of cases involving Ms Gobbo, said there were 10 barristers and two full-time solicitors working through thousands of documents.

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The Court of Appeal has decided that an application for leave to appeal by Mokbel cannot be heard until all documents relating to his case are filed.

The appeal is currently argued on assumptions of what documents might show, and Justice Maxwell said facts rather than hypothetical scenarios were required.

He also ordered that parties work together to come up with a realistic timetable for handling the case as quickly as possible, demanding a joint report by June 30 on the direction the case will take and a likely timeline.

"We will be treating these appeals as a matter of top priority and high urgency and we will be receptive to tight timetables," he said.

"The court will be making its own resources and judges available."

He said while the royal commission had sought information relating to a wider range of people, police must cease all other work so documents relating to Mokbel, Karam and Cvetanovski could be the focus.

"These are matters of the highest importance. It bears directly on public confidence in the criminal justice system," Justice Maxwell said.

Mokbel's lawyer Richard Maidment QC revealed as well as an appeal against conviction he was also considering a petition for mercy from the court, but that also could not proceed without documents from police.

"We're a long way short of being in a position to put forward a petition for mercy," he said.

Mokbel and Karam each have decades remaining on respective 30 and 35-year jail sentences for drug trafficking.

Cvetanovski has just over a year remaining on his 11-year sentence.

Mokbel, 53, was attacked in Victoria's maximum security Barwon Prison by two fellow inmates on February 11, leaving him fighting for life.